MSNBC Suspends Alec Baldwin’s Show For Two Weeks

Actor suspended after confronting TV reporter

Alec Baldwin’s “Up Late” program will not air tonight or next Friday on MSNBC in the wake of comments the actor made while dealing with reporters seeking to question him about a salacious court case in which he is involved.

“I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have – and for that I am deeply sorry,” Baldwin said in a statement posted on MSNBC’s website. “Words are important. I understand that, and will choose mine with great care going forward. What I said and did this week, as I was trying to protect my family, was offensive and unacceptable. Behavior like this undermines hard-fought rights that I vigorously support. I understand “Up Late” will be taken off the schedule for tonight and next week. I want to apologize to my loyal fans and to my colleagues at MSNBC – both for my actions and for distracting from their good work. Again, please accept my apology.”

Baldwin, who testified this week at a trial of a woman accused of stalking him, was asked about the case by a reporter from WNYW, a Fox-operated TV station in New York. Baldwin brushed by the reporter, but then turned and confronted him, saying, “If you’re still here when my wife and kid come out, you’re going to have a big problem, you know that?”

He then insulted the reporter, saying, “You are as dumb as you look. You are with Fox, right?”

On Thursday, Baldwin warded off photographers he felt were getting too close to his family. At one point during the confrontation, he was heard using an anti-gay slur. Baldwin later used Twitter to call attention to the offensiveness of such language.

The suspension is not the first time MSNBC has taken one of its personalities off the air. In 2010, MSNBC suspended Keith Olbermann, then its best-known anchor, after discovering he had made political donations to three Democratic congressional candidates – an act that was said to be in violation of NBC News ethics policies. In the end, the suspension lasted just a handful of days.

Baldwin’s program typically features guests in one-on-one conversation with the actor, who has developed a reputation with NBCUniversal during his tenure on “30 Rock,” which aired on the NBC broadcast network, and as a host multiple times on “Saturday Night Live.” The show’s premiere featured an hour-long interview with Bill de Blasio, just days before he was elected Mayor of New York City.

While announcement of the program on MSNBC raised some eyebrows – Baldwin is not a journalist and his support for liberal causes is well-known – its ratings have not been stellar. The most recent episode, broadcast November 8, reached 395,000 viewers overall, according to Nielsen data. Among viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, the demographic preferred by advertisers in news programming, 101,000 tuned in. In contrast, the premiere of “Up Late” attracted 654,000 viewers overall and 172,000 between the ages of 25 to 54.

This language policing has to stop. Who cares what word some guy uses to insult a reporter? He was obviously not insulting the guy’s actual sexuality – it is often used as a generic term. Instead of groups hanging on to their pet peeve words with no attention to the actual context in which they were used, why aren’t they focusing on cases where people are truly hateful towards them as a group? Words don’t matter. Context and intent matters.

suspended for 2 weeks for vulgar comments, racist rants and homophobic slurs? any right-leaning host would be fired, no questions asked and never work in the industry again. but we know what’s going on with the dimwit double standard.

Just because you have freedom of speech it does not mean you have freedom from consequences. If you say something that offends someone enough you might find yourself out of a job for 2 weeks. Or before they made it illegal someone might give you the opportunity to defend your word in a duel, where you can have all the freedom of speech you want, only you might have to pay for it with your life.

Baldwin knows how to ACT like a nice person. That’s why he’s an actor. He just doesn’t know how to BE a nice person. So, when the cameras are off, the monster comes out. He’s certainly not unique in this respect. But because of his notoriety he stands out as an example to the world. It sure does take a lot for this guy to feel embarrassed. Typical narcissistic behavior.

Baldwin is an MSNBC favorite because he is as anti-conservative as anyone can be…he literally hates republicans. But when he insulted gays he stepped over the line because the media is abnormally highly staffed with gays and lesbians. Which is also why the spin out of the NY media often has christian bashing who generally are against gay marriage.

I saw the video. Baldwin was defending his family, telling the reporters to stay away from them. This has been Completely taken out of context. MSNBC can keep their cra p shows. I’ll be looking for Alec Baldwin at the movies.

This guy is a nut job and a lousy “actor”. I can’t stand to watch him on tv and will immediately change the channel. Charlie Sheen has more personality than this whacko has and I don’t watch him either. I am sick of people who think they are the Elitely Entitled. Very boring.

Alec look up the word Diplomacy and perhaps learn how to become diplomatic before you go into politics

diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to a common challenge, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner.

Can’t see why NBC is punishing Baldwin since he certainly meets their standards of low quality programming, paritisan shills for personalities, agenda driven newcasting and a consistantly pathetic parade of personalities.

you know things are bad when alec baldwin is held responsible when he says something offensive to some “protected group”. Ironically, if we stopped treating those of us who believe that they deserve special laws, special treatment, certain labels, just because some aspect of their make up is different from ours. He should have just stuck to useing hateful language towards converatives, or republicans or republican women, or conservative blacks or hispanics.

Why is he even still in the limelight? I don’t understand how anyone can support this train wreck, with his history of abusive language and actions, not to mention, he’s just talentless. Never liked this Baldwin…actually, don’t care for any of them. Boorish brood the whole lot of them, but this one…wins the cake. Idiot.

Are you as dumb as you look? You sir have a History of this type of explosive bursts. I certainly will NOT
give you or your late night program any of my time to watch. I personally think you should take some professional help to control your rantings.